The two-week Balikatan joint military exercises between the United States military and our Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to be formally launched tomorrow at Camp Aguinaldo will focus on improving our capabilities for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) as well as in counter-terrorism operations.

National security issues now include environmental hazards. Balikatan 2017 will be an exercise in partnership for mitigating possible damages due to disasters both natural and man-made.